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2-Plants: Wilting havoc on Bt cotton in Warangal (India)

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TITLE:  Wilting havoc on Bt cotton in Warangal;
        loss estimated at over Rs 50 crores;
        Demand for a moratorium on Bt cultivation
SOURCE: AP Coalition in Defence of Diversity, India, posted by GMWatch, UK
        http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7115
DATE:   8 Oct 2006

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Bt cotton causing massive financial losses in Andhra Pradesh (9/10/2006)
from p.v.satheesh in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India:

Dear Jonathan

In Andhra Pradesh (AP) alarm bells have been ringing ever since Bt
cotton was planted. But most policy ears are so deaf [or colluding or
both] that they never seem to be able to hear this. Look at the latest
observations of a fact finding team sent by AP Coalition in Defence of
Diversity which clearly says that farmers in just one district of AP,
viz., Warangal District, stand to lose nearly US $12-18 million this
season because of a serious wilt on Bt cotton. As the recent report on
GM cotton growing in Makhathini Flats says, the poor have once again
helped GM Crops.

This is no new phenomenon. Our scientists Dr Qayum and Mr Sakkhari have
been warning about this possibility for the last two years. But the Bt
cotton issue has become a big Bollywood tamasha in India and every year
the industry finds a new hype and drama to push its seeds. The
government is a colluder or a mute spectator. The Government of AP has
taken just a Monopoly controller's view by price fixing. It does not
want to bother about the environmental and social damage that the Bt
cotton is creating. How this Greek Tragedy will conclude is a chilling
thought.

Please see the report below:
---

Wilting havoc on Bt cotton in Warangal; loss estimated at over Rs 50
crores; Demand for a moratorium on Bt cultivation
October 8, 2006
PRESS RELEASE

Bt cotton, beleagured in Warangal district, is reporting another major
havoc. This comes in the form of drying up of crops [known as wilting]
in over 250,000 acres of Bt cotton area in Warangal District which
translates into a loss of over Rs.50 crores, US $12 million] for
farmers. This is the finding of a fact finding team consisting of
scientists, farmers, academicians and civil society groups which visited
four mandals of Warangal on October 5, 2006.

A team of scientists and community researchers from the AP Coalition in
Defence of Diversity who are tracking the performance of Bt cotton in
Warangal for over five years now were noticing wilt and root rot since
mid July this year. In order to have a broad based analysis of their
findings, the APCID and WAGE [Warangal Against Genetic Engineering]
constituted a 12 member Review Team which visited four mandals [L
Ghanpur, Atmakur, Sayampet and Geesugonda] observing the farms of a
number of farmers and holding extensive discussions with them on October
5, 2006. In the villages which the team visited, nearly 80-90% of the
cotton acreage is made up of Bt cotton.

The farmers were using Bt seeds from diverse seed companies that
included Rasi-2, Ajith-33, Mallika, Bunny, and Mahyco-6322. ALL THESE
CROPS WERE SEVERELY AFFECTED BY THE WILT, especially on red soils, most
of which are owned by poor small farmers. The farmers in these villages
have been growing cotton for over three decades and have vast experience
in understanding the behaviour of cotton crops. It was their unanimous
opinion that they had never seen the kind and extent of wilt they are
witnessing this season on Bt cotton.

On a conservative estimate this wilt will result in a loss of upto Rs.
100 crores in Warangal District alone. Each farmer has already invested
upto Rs.5000 to Rs 7000 per acre due to the wilting. Since the wilt is
expected to have affected over 100,000 acres of red soils, in Warangal
District, the domino effect of the wilt will mount to a formidable Rs.50
to Rs.75 crores [US $12-18 million].

Agricultural Scientist Mr Kiran Sakkhari who was in the team was of the
opinion that the wilt symptoms are similar to root rot caused by
Rhizocotonia sp. The typical symptoms of the rot caused by Rhizoctonia
are sporadic wilting of the plants in the field. Initially leaves on the
affected plants turn yellowish giving a mosaic pattern of alternative
green and yellowish pattern on drooping leaves followed by the leaf
drop, start getting dried up from top leading to the death of the plant.
At times, these plants may also show Bacterial Leaf Blight symptoms.
When the plant gets affected by this pathogen, the main root starts to
decay and lose secondary root hairs, making plants unable to uptake
water and nutrients from the soil leading to the death of the plant.

The Rhizoctonia root rot which was first identified on the Mahyco Bt
hybrids by Dr Abdul Qayum and Mr Kiran Sakkhari the scientists of APCIDD
in the year 2003, has been spreading more and more year after year. The
report released by the APCIDD in early 2005 cautioned the farming and
the scientific community that this might turn out to be a disaster with
increased adoption of Bt hybrids, since the wilt incidence was noticed
more on Bt hybrids than the conventional Non Bt hybrids.

The wilt has also a far reaching consequences. If grown on the same Bt
cotton fields, the succeeding crops such as Chilly, Tobacco, Tomato and
Groundnut would also be affected by this wilt since the fungal spores
that transmit the disease are likely to remain active in the infected
fields for 3-5 years.

Just as the farmers were getting aware of the harmful effects of Bt
cotton and were readying themselves to abandon it, a new marketing
blitzkrieg began by the industry which reduced the Bt seed price by over
70%. This suddenly put more than 80% of the cotton acreage in Warangal
district under Bt hybrids marketed by various companies.

The APCID and the Warangal Against Genetic Engineering demand that In
the wake of this huge loss to the farming community, the regulatory
agencies must immediately gear up and take necessary steps to contain
the false marketing hype created by the biotech seed companies and force
them legally and otherwise to take the full responsibility for promoting
these Bt hybrids by paying out compensation to the farmers who are
staring at huge losses.


The APCID and WAGE also demand that

- An independent commission must be constituted to find out the extent
of damage caused by growing these Bt hybrids and pay the compensation to
the farmers.

- Regulatory agencies must immediately take stringent action on the
false claims made by the companies. The regulatory are almost non
existent at the present time and their comatose state has emboldened the
Biotech industry to play havoc with he lives and soils of farmers in Warangal.

- The government, in step with its earlier bold measures must declare a
moratorium on the cultivation of Bt hybrids until a comprehensive study
is undertaken taken on the possible impact of these hybrids on cotton
environment and livestock.


p.v.satheesh
Convener
AP Coalition in Defence of Diversity, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India


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